Rotor & Wing Magazine :: Military :: Heavylift

Where is Raymond Orteig when we need him? Aviation history buffs know that name as belonging to the hotelier who in 1919 offered $25,000 to the first to fly nonstop between New York and Paris. The more recognizable name associated with his is that of Charles Lindbergh, who claimed the prize after landing The Spirit of St. Louis at Le Bourget airfield on May 20, 1927 following a solo flight of 33 hr, 29 min...

LEE BENSON is the retired senior pilot for the Los Angeles County Fire Dept. Before he was named senior pilot, Lee ran the aviation section’s safety and training programs, including organizing the section’s yearly safety meeting with other public agencies and the press. REBECCA CHRISTIE this month contributes the Program Insider page of Rotorcraft Report. Based in Washington, she specializes in...

PRODUCTS Engine makers Honeywell and Rolls-Royce project a hearty helicopter market worldwide for the next several years. Honeywell is projecting that 4,450 new civil, turbine-powered helicopters will go into service worldwide in the next five years, with corporate, emergency medical services (EMS), and law enforcement customers accounting for more...

Boeing’s CH-47 program is off and running in 2008, with a range of international prospects on the horizon. "The pipeline’s pretty full," Boeing Program Manager Ken Eland told Rotor & Wing. "You can pretty much pick a country that has helicopters and we’re talking to them." The F-model Chinooks made an unusually speedy transition to the foreign sales market. Boeing...

President Bush may have nominated FAA Deputy Administrator Robert Sturgell to head the aviation agency, but his man may never take the post. The nomination as FAA chief requires confirmation by the U.S. Senate, and that body has repeatedly put off hearings toward approving Sturgell for the job. A number of reasons have been rumored. Among them is that labor-friendly Democrats in the Senate are miffed at...

Igor Sikorsky, the godfather of the modern helicopter, perhaps summed it up best: "Aeronautics was neither an industry nor a science. It was a miracle." When I served as editor-in-chief of Rotor & Wing during the mid-to-late 1990s, I was always struck by the sheer passion of the people in the helicopter market. Their devotion to rotorcraft made editing this magazine a joy and a privilege. I...

It would be a heck of a command and leadership development exercise. Throw a military unit into action against a diffuse and unconventional foe. Then add a second fight against a similar enemy. Sustain operations at a pace for which the unit has not ever organized, trained, or budgeted. Restrict relief capabilities so the unit’s warfighting equipment must be refurbished as fast as its personnel can...

Some would argue that rotorcraft engineering is as much an art as a science, and they could muster a compelling defense of that premise.. Take the case of Frank Robinson, the R44 Raven 2 main rotor blade, and the hacksaw. The engineers at Robinson Helicopter Co. were trying to come up with a design that would get more altitude performance out of the R44. They knew one thing they needed was more main rotor...

PARIS — The Australian government’s cancellation of a $1 billion contract to buy 11 Kaman Super Seasprites for its navy is the latest illustration of the difficulties involved in over-ambitious retrofits and upgrades, but it is by no means the only one. The U.S. Marine Corps’ H-1 upgrade program, the U.K. Royal Air Force’s special-forces Chinooks, and the VH-71 U.S. presidential...

Australia has again bid farewell to a detachment of Boeing CH-47 Chinook troops for a deployment to support NATO operations in Afghanistan. The aviators, loadmasters and technicians from C Sqdn., 5th Aviation Regiment, based in Townsville, Queensland, left in early February to join an advance party and their two Chinooks in the southern Afghanistan province of Kandahar. The squadron will transport...

Electro Energy has won a $5 million contract from the U.S. Defense Logistic Agency to manufacture batteries for the U.S. Army/Bell Helicopter OH-58 Kiowa. The Danbury, Conn.-based company will produce nickel-cadmium (NiCd) batteries, NiCd cells, and associated heater blanket assemblies for that helicopter fleet. The contract has a two-year base period with three option years and guaranteed minimum order...

Attack/Utility — Bell Helicopter delivered three H-1 upgrade aircraft to the U.S. Marine Corps in February, as the H-1 program finally rolls into production. So far, it has delivered one attack AH-1Z and two utility UH-1Ys. A full-rate production decision is due later this year. Heavy Lift — The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command recently showed off "first chips" from newly machined parts...

PRODUCTS | AVIONICS Intelligent Automation Corp. is making headway in persuading helicopter operators of the value of its aircraft monitoring and diagnostics systems. Much of Poway, Calif.-based IAC’s success has come with military operators. Its health and usage monitoring systems (HUMS) are...

PRODUCTS | AIRFRAMES Bell Helicopter is reorganizing its engineering shop and going outside for managers. Among its new hires is long-time tilt-rotor critic Nick Lappos. In a March 19 e-mail to employees, Bell President and CEO Richard Millman said Lappos, a 32-year veteran of Sikorsky Aircraft and most recently a Gulfstream executive, will head Bell’s XworX R&D shop...

Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works and Karem Aircraft are teaming up to develop a tilt-rotor aircraft based on Karem's optimum-speed tilt-rotor design. Karem's is one of three approaches selected by the Pentagon's Joint Heavy Lift program for further...

India is widely considered one of rotorcraft’s biggest potential growth markets. But how will that growth develop? Slowly, some experienced with doing helicopter business there argue. Demand for offshore-support services is rising, spurred by increased exploration and production efforts in response to record oil...

A recent U.S. Army aviation conference served as a reminder that a prerequisite for such events is an eye exam. The event was one of several whose presentations feature the notorious "quad chart." This visual aid crams four Powerpoint-type slides into a single slide. Its widespread use indicates someone in...

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